How to add value

When you are in the business to business market, it is imperative that you understand your customer, nurture them and importantly, add value.

There are so many ways to add value and it goes beyond just providing a product or service. It’s about giving an experience or benefit to a customer that they are not expecting that directly benefits their business and hopefully, their bottom line.

Marketing Eye is busy… really busy. Our team has not had time to breathe for the past 12 months with so much work and daily deadlines, that I worry every day that everyone will actually burn out.

Because of this, we are providing a much needed service to small to medium businesses needing marketing, and yes, we do add value because of the service we provide, but there are so many other ways in which we could be doing it better.

I am the first to admit when things can be better but aren’t. It is one of the few good traits I possess!

In our business, we have a ‘magic number’ of clients we would like. To be honest, we are nearly there. The plan is to cap off our client base at the end of November and not take on new clients until we add a whole heap of new ‘add-on’ benefits for our clients that they aren’t expecting and that everything is running so smoothly that we can take the leap to the next level.

It means only working ‘on’ the business and not ‘in’ the business, and it means streamlining processes and taking a fresh look at every area of our business. We plan to hire Redgum Technologies (www.redgum.com.au) to streamline our technology and develop new technologies to improve our service delivery. Importantly, they will ensure that all of our different software programs are working together and are connected to maximise the benefit of having them. It will ultimately save us money, improve productivity and ensure we are ready to grow to the next level. They make it affordable for businesses like us, by allowing a small retainer per month for their service over a 12 month period.

It is an exciting time for Marketing Eye and our number of marketing consultants and creatives who cannot wait to see the ‘new look Marketing Eye’ in 2011. After a break over the Christmas period, they will come back for a week’s training and then they will commence the new year fresh.

So, what is our ‘add-on’ services that is going to benefit our clients?

Given that we are not afraid of competition and believe that there is enough work out there for everyone, here are some areas we can add value;

• Round tables for complementary businesses – we have over 100 clients and want to see them doing business with each other
• Marketing Eye magazine – giving small businesses that are unique a voice through editorial profiling and distributing to 10,000 other business leaders, entrepreneurs and managers for them to read about the latest and greatest
• Coaching clinics for marketing support staff – ensuring that small businesses upskill their employees who work with Marketing Eye
• Export programs to key regions around the world that Marketing Eye has agents or offices in.

This is the plan and over the Xmas period, we are focussed as a team in achieving these important milestones. It will add immediate value to our clients businesses and deliver them with new clients and relationships that may lead to future referrals.

Where can you add value to your clients – more than you are today?

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